You would think that a good thief such as myself would know exactly what to do in this situation. You of course, would be wrong. I had absolutely no Idea what to do. I was just frozen in my tracks with the locket half inside my tuxedo's shirt pocket and half in the grasp of my shaking fingers. It wasn't until about ten seconds later until I worked everything out in my head. I had to get out of that house and quick. There was a large chance that it wasn't the police who were knocking on the door, and I’m a huge fan of gambling, but not like this. I wasn't about to bet ten years in jail on the odds that it was just one of her friends. I turned my head to the door that led into the sea of darkness that consumed the entire house, almost tripping on the same pile of clothes. I made more noise than I would have preferred while trying to regain my balance, but I had to keep going and keep my head up. I couldn't afford to curse myself for the small racket. I removed my keychain light once again and bit down on it so that I could have both of my hands free. My black water shoes that I always wear on my jobs fell absolutely silently onto the carpet of the stairs. I refrained from diving to the back door because of the noise it would make, although I was still tempted to. I just ran to the back exit, making sure to roll step like the bands do in the parade. I slowly opened the metallic door when I felt the nice cool breeze on my face. I was actually surprised at how silently the door opened. I took the keychain light that was now wet with saliva out of my mouth and turned it off. I didn't want to be seen and I had a hunch that having a light on me would give me away. I sprinted as fast as I could while the slight wind and rattling leaves muffled my thumps on the dry cracked dirt in the backyard. I leaped over the fence, into the backyard of the people who lived right behind the girl I was robbing. I fell behind the bushes onto some pleasant grass, but unfortunately, I knew I was leaving that bush with a shallow cut right across my cheek. I didn't have time to evaluate the deepness of the cut because I had to get moving. I made my way out of the bush and turned around the corner of the fence into the neighbor of the girl who had the pleasure of my little surprise visit. I couldn't resist seeing for sure who was at the door so I began to sneak around to the edge of the fence to find out. I took cover at the very edge of rough wooden fence and took a quick peek around to see only one man at the doorstep. From what I had gathered, He was in a casual outfit, and he had roses behind his back. I hadn't known for sure who he might be until I heard him yell "Hey, it's time for our date, you in there?" He was the date I had been informed of. But why wasn't the girl there to meet him? When I had entered the girls house, I thought she was gone because of her movie. But if the date was here, then where was the girl? I waited until the man left before I made my way home with the necklace. I had made it in and out of the house in five minutes and had the Item of interest in my coat pocket. On the way back to my apartment, I made up crazy fantasies of where the missing girl could possibly be. I thought it was possible that she left, thinking that she would meet her date at the theatre, or maybe she forgot all about it and ran her errands. I had no idea which kind of put me in a bad mood, but at least I had something to think about. I pondered on the strange mystery all the way home. And although it was only 7:00, I was completely wiped out. So I put the necklace in my safe, ate a microwaveable meal and plopped myself straight into bed. I fell asleep almost immediately. If somebody asked me how long I had been asleep, I would have said not a second more than thirty minutes, but when I woke up and checked my bedside clock, I saw that it was almost 9:00. I was supposed to meet Vince with the locket at 10:00. I followed the daily morning routine same as last time only I put on a casual sweat shirt and jeans. When sat down on my couch with my breakfast and flipped to the news channel, I hoped that today’s news would be more exciting than yesterdays. Now, I wish I hadn't wished for what I did, because it was unmistakably more exciting. The image shown on the screen hadn't been at all what I expected. There was a murder right near the shopping mall downtown. This only shook me up more than normal because of the driver’s license picture that displayed the person who had been killed. Around the girls neck was the diamond crusted locket that I currently had in my possession.

At that moment, I suddenly felt a burning shock of pain in my lower back and felt like the temperature in the room had changed to 100 degrees. I was sweating like a pig when I finally collapsed onto my sofa cushion. When I woke up three minutes later I had no idea what was going on or what in the world I was going to do. I stumbled out my door into the hall probably looking like a drunk hobo, and made my way to the coffee shop to meet Vince, thinking to myself that it was a good idea to leave the locket in my house. I found engaging all four all of my locks quite tricky because of the state of panic I was in. I had no idea what to expect from Vince. I almost got ahold of myself on the way to the shop because I had the chance to calm down a little bit. I tried not to look to panicked and scared out of my mind as I walked into the coffee joint for Vince’s sake, but it was no use because I could tell by the look in his eyes that he already knew. He was certainly just as, if not more, distressed than I was. That made me a little bit disappointed because I was hoping to get some answers from him but he obviously knew nothing. It surprised me that he decided to not even let me get halfway into the coffee shop when he stood up and began to approach me. But, surprising me again, he didn't say a single word. Vince just left the joint. I followed him patiently until he began to turn into an alley way, looking back at me as if surprised that I had caught onto his trail. Once we were safely concealed from the passing cars by the shrouded darkness caused by the tall buildings, I broke into a sprint and, without realizing what I had done, grabbed Vince by the shoulders and slammed him against the wall as if I were mugging him. I didn't mean to be harsh, but I needed to know things about this girl I had robbed and the pickle I was in before I got into even deeper sludge. "What is going on Vince? I need to know everything!" I barked like an enraged dog. "I know just as much as you do. I was hoping you had found out something." He looked very paranoid and frightened by either the fact that I was in his face with him pinned to the wall, or that he knew that we were both in the dark, and we were going to stay that way if something wasn't done. I released him from the wet grimy brick wall and started to jog out of the alley when he said "That’s it? You're just gonna leave?"
"Why bother staying when you don't know anything Vince? I could be out getting some answers." I didn't even let him respond to what I said before emerging into a bright sunny day. I walked home at a steady pace because I wanted to think about my situation. My only suspects were the new boyfriend, the ex-husband, or, dare I say it, Vince. I also thought about why the girl might have been killed. Could she have been a fellow criminal? Could she be working for the government? What was she doing that night that would give that away? I had too many questions and not enough answers. I had no idea where to even start and I had just a little bit to go on. I thought I would just wait it out and calm down. Now that I think of it, I wasn't even involved in this silly crime. Well, not the murder that is. I had my breathing under control by the time I got back to my apartment, so I fixed myself a snack and started to work on the website I was building for my newest client. It certainly soothed my nerves and it also at least got my mind off of the murder. While my hands drifted along the sleek shiny keyboard of my laptop, typing line after line of endless code to get the website online, my mind wandered into an entirely different dimension. I couldn't really remember much after that but what I did know was that I had woken up at about 1:00 in the afternoon with drool on my keyboard. My head was throbbing and I felt sick to my stomach. I had to concentrate in order to get myself to that couch and turn on the TV. That sure woke me up because the first thing I saw on the TV was another news article about the murder. A list of suspects were displayed under the reporters face. I was going down the list seeing nobody I knew or had ever known except for one man. He had jet black hair, pail white skin, and vibrant green eyes. The name displayed under the picture of this man was surely something that I personally didn't want to see. Suspect number five, Truman W Spike.